One Year Bible, July 24

2 CHRONICLES 11:1 - 13:22                                                                                           
REHOBOAM: Characteristics: (1) Infatuation with power. (2) Intolerant attitude. (3) Arrogance. He gathered 180,000 warriors to fight against the rebels that gathered to JEROBOAM. The prophet, Shemaiah, warned him not to - because GOD tore the Kingdom apart. Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines. (12:1): When Rehoboam had all his ducks in a row, he forsook the law of the Lord and took all of Israel with him.  He provoked the Lord to jealousy. Rehoboam's apostasy begin in his 4th year, and judgment came in the 5th through the Egyptians (12:2) who stripped the palace and the Temple of gold.

JEROBOAM: A model for walking in WICKEDNESS. God raised him up from nothing to rule the 10 northern tribes.  To prevent the people from going to Jerusalem to worship, Jeroboam erected TWO GOLDEN CALVES and placed them in Dan and Bethel as substitutes for Jehovah.  He made the lowest people into priests, held substitute festivals, used false altars and false worship.  Jeroboam is a type of the antichristian world-spirit. He is also a type of the FLESH.

THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH: The 10 northern tribes (Israel) had Judah (the 2 southern tribes) in a pincer move - "the battle was before and behind". The people cried out to the Lord and gave a shout - and GOD killed Jeroboam and delivered Israel into Judah's hand. Because, as Judah reported, "God Himself is with us for our captain."

RESPONSE:  The northern tribes were TOLD that by coming against Judah, they were fighting against GOD and couldn't succeed (13:12).  Our flesh can fight against God.  And when it does, it can't succeed because God won't let us "win".  I was reminded of that one day when I watched my daughter correcting one of her children. My little 6-year-old granddaughter was determined to outlast her mother.  I kept wishing she was capitulate, because the sooner she gave up, the quicker this thing could be over. My grandchild used pouting, crying, arguing, and anything else she could think of, but to no avail.  Our flesh is like that.  This is why we define sin as, "I want to do, what I want to do, when I want to do it."

ROMANS 8:22-39                                                                                                             

See last night's blog.

PSALM 18:37-50                                                                                                              
WHO IS MY ENEMY?  God has "girded me with strength for the battle." The word, "strength" is the OT word, "chayil" and the NT word, "dunamis." It is the word used for "valor, force, heroic strength, might and wealth."   Inherent strength (resident within me - not "coming upon") is the pressing REALITY of God's Life in us.   It is what is necessary for me to OBEY God in the humanly impossible things.  BUT WHAT BATTLE IS THIS TALKING ABOUT?  We don't want to fight "like a man beating the air" (1Co 9:26) because I'm fighting the wrong thing.   In fact, I don't want to take a chance that I am fighting against GOD!

We learn in the NT, that we have opposition from three things: the world, the flesh and the devil.  All three are driven by the world-spirit of antichrist.  One of them can be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus.  One of them was already overcome by the death and resurrection of Jesus. And one of them should be "mortified" (NT word for "killed"), or "crucified" - and is in its death throes.  The world-spirit can be cleansed away, specifically from individuals.  The devil has been defeated by Jesus (The devil not even listed in Romans as something we have to be concerned with in our metamorphosis.)  But the FLESH, the thing giving Paul and us fits in Romans 7 - is OUR CONCERN.   According to Rom 8:7, man's flesh is an enemy of God - and that makes it my enemy too.

In the OT, enemies were to be killed, destroyed, their gods and worship implements burned, the children and women destroyed, and their territory taken over. There were no be no agreements made with enemies, no mercy shown to their leaders, no marriages made with them. THIS DESCRIBES OUR BATTLE WITH THE FLESH.  We don't "kill" devils and we don't "kill" people. That only leaves one thing: the flesh. When we obey our own flesh, we give voice to the world-spirit of antichrist! Let's "subdue it under me", "beat them like the dust before the wind", "cast them out as the dirt in the streets."   Or, as Paul has said, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Co 9:27)

PROVERBS 19:27-29                                                                                                          
We need not hear anything that will lead us away from God and from Truth.  Someone who serves himself (he is his own god), has no respect for the fact that one day he will be judged for all of it. Like a fool, he is heading for defeat.

RESPONSE: I need a reminder every day that my body, specifically my BIG MOUTH, is to be a servant of the Lord (and of my own spirit). My attitude MUST be that what I want is irrelevant most of the time.  I must do what God said. There is no room for compromise.  God disqualified King Saul for allowing the enemy king to live.  Joshua's army was defeat when he allowed Babylonian (world-spirit) gold and garments to be hidden in the camp.  There are so many examples of what happens when I allow one tiny complaint to get away from me.  When I let one ounce of self-pity go through my head.  When I bang one kettle too hard on the stove.  I am just one step away from being disqualified for the Kingdom.  I must be on guard. Jesus is worthy of every sacrifice.  I can either give my life or waste it.